July and August 2026

This time I tried to  challenge myself to pick flowers in red, white, and blue for an  Independence Day theme.  Each of these flowers can be seen in July in  our area.  While there aren’t all that many truly blue flowers, there  are lots of flowers with both blue and violet or purple in them, and I  love the blooms on balloon flower, which provides a great pop of July  color. 

I  will be offering this class in 3 sessions—red, white, and blue, but the  white painting is a bit more involved so I will begin it on the first  session and finish it the second, while taking additional questions  about it on the third session.  

The dates I’d like to offer this SUMMER FLOWERS class are

July 14th—Red and the beginning of white

July 28th—White

August 4th—Blue (plus purple!)

Please  note that the dates are a little different than usual.  There are 2  weeks between the first classes but only one week between the second and  third class.  Of course, I don’t expect you to finish the white  waterlily before the third class begins, but I’m hoping you can start it  before the third class so I can answer questions then or explain things  I wasn’t clear on as you begin to paint. 

                   A little about the daylily

--The  flowers each have 3 petals and 3 sepals.  On this daylily there isn’t  too much difference but the petals are a bit larger with more prominent  markings.  

--Each petal and sepal has a rib down the middle.  On this daylily, the rib is just a lighter red, with yellow near the throat.

--The reproductive parts that come from the throat include 6 stamens and a pistil.

--Each stamen consists of a long filament (red on this daylily) topped with an anther (lightly colored here).

--The pistil (lightly colored) consists of the ovary (not visible on photo) the long style and tiny stigma at the tip.

--You can see a few emerging buds on the peaking out on the top left part of the flower.

The above are immediately after class: the  watercolor paint version of the waterlily, the watercolor pencil  version, and the first stage of the lily pad immediately after class. 

RED

Watercolor: Scarlet Lake, Alizarin Crimson, Aureolin, Sap, French Ultramarine, Burnt Sienna.  I might also add New Gamboge.

Watercolor  Pencil:  Note: the following reds are just a variety of options.  Just  check on your reds and see which you like.  Options include Inktense  Poppy, Inktense Cherry, Prismacolor Carmine, Pale Geranium Lake, Cadmium  Yellow, Permanent Green Olive, Light Green, Inktense Dark Chocolate,  Middle Purple Pink, Helioblue Reddish

WHITE

A graphite pencil in 2H-4H

Watercolor=Aureolin, Quinacridone Red, Quinacridone Pink, Cobalt Blue, French Ultramarine, Sap, Burnt Sienna, New Gamboge 

Watercolor  Pencil=Light Yellow Glaze, Cadmium Yellow, Dark Cadmium Orange, Fuchsia  or Middle Purple Pink, Helioblue Reddish, Light Ultramarine, Burnt  Ochre, Raw Umber, Inktense Dark Chocolate, Derwent Blue Gray, Cool Gray I  and/or Derwent Silver Gray

BLUE

Watercolor: Cobalt Violet, Cobalt Blue, Aureolin, Sap, Quinacridone Pink

Watercolor Pencil: Prismacolor Lilac, Prismacolor Violet, Helioblue Reddish, Light Ultramarine, Light Green